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For Immediate Release

NSA Whistleblowers Praise Snowden at GAP Whistleblower Conference

WASHINGTON - The Government Accountability Project (GAP) conference "Whistleblowers, Journalists, and the New War Within" held yesterday, July 25, at the National Press Club featured a panel of three ex-NSA whistleblowers, along with experts on digital surveillance, telecom systems engineering, and whistleblower legal protections.

Moderated by syndicated columnist David Sirota and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times writer James Risen, the morning conference gave insights into the clandestine world of the NSA, the challenges inherent to working within the organization's hierarchy, and the increasingly tenuous relationship between today's embattled journalists and their confidential sources.

"These whistleblowers give tremendous insight into the plight of Edward Snowden right now," observed GAP Executive Director Beatrice Edwards. Edwards launched the conference with opening remarks characterizing a new cyberwar that she described as "the endless war … the forever war … the war within."

Similarly, former NSA Technical Director William Binney said: "I don't see what other choice he had … He felt his only option was to leave the country and I don't blame him."

When confronted with the argument that Snowden was not revealing illegality and was therefore not a whistleblower, Binney responded: "If all this was legal, why did (telecom companies) need retroactive immunity?"

In a rare moment, Binney further alluded to the NSA program Stellar Wind, which he characterized as constructing social networks for any American based on their personal and professional associations. This program is presumed to be the predecessor for the controversial NSA PRISM program that was among Snowden's key revelations. "You have no freedom of association with the NSA knowing about it … it's a matter of software," stated Binney.

"We've become the enemies we're trying to thwart," concluded former NSA official J. Kirk Wiebe. The former Senior Analyst further condemned the NSA by stating that 9/11 was the result of the organization's "self-interest, ego, and arrogance."

Thomas Drake, the most public NSA whistleblower until Snowden made his disclosures, also commented on 9/11, revealing that the NSA actively obstructed three Congressional investigations into the security failures that left the United States exposed to the attacks. Drake further revealed the agency set up a "War Room" to manage its communications with Congress.

Since 1977, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) has championed government and corporate accountability and transparency by advancing occupational free speech, defending whistleblowers, and empowering citizen activists. The mission of GAP is to make large bureaucratic institutions accountable through the effective exercise of conscience.

###

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a 30-year-old nonprofit
public interest group that promotes government and corporate
accountability by advancing occupational free speech, defending
whistleblowers, and empowering citizen activists. We pursue this
mission through our Nuclear Safety, International Reform, Corporate
Accountability, Food & Drug Safety, and Federal Employee/National
Security programs. GAP is the nation's leading whistleblower protection
organization.

Further

In the vile wake of Charlottesville - those sweaty young white men, pasty faces contorted, screaming, "Blood and Soil!" "Jews Will Not Replace Us!" "Fuck You Faggots!" - what to say? Just this: This is racism, domestic terrorism, pure hate. This is not who we are, and this is not ok. Most vital, those "whose pigmentation matches theirs" must speak "with unflinching clarity (or) we simply amen it... They need white faces speaking directly into their white faces, loudly on behalf of love."

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